Sunday, March 19, 2017

Latitude 43 Gloucester

Since the snowstorm didn't happen, I decided to visit Latitude 43 in Gloucester for my Sunday lunch armed with a voucher from Living Social.

Latitude 43 are located smack in the middle of Gloucester's harbor, and they have off street parking. There is also the Minglewood Tavern in the same building.

There is a cozy little room just off the entrance.

Latitude 43 take their Sushi seriously and had two chefs on duty in the sunken Sushi bar. There was a seriously cool looking octopus sculpture hanging over the Sushi bar and also a crab in the background.

The interior was really charming with lots of blond ash wood around. There is a Gloucester lifeboat with a metal keel hanging in front of the open kitchen.

A very nice table setting and some freshly baked focaccia promptly arrived.

I started with the Latitude Mussels ($14). "Leeks, garlic, shallot, fennel, white wine & butter, served with crostini". A crostini it wasn't since a crostini normally has a topping on it. What it was was a piece of rock hard toasted bread. The broth was super tasty with a pleasant flavor from the leeks and fennel. The mussels were a mixed bag of unopened mussels, mussels that were just shriveled up and some nice ones. It might have been the wrong time of the year to order mussels. This was a pleasant departure from your normal white wine and garlic mussels.

Next was the Seafood Bouillabaisse ($17). "Mussels, fish, fennel, fingerling potatoes & saffron tomato stew with grilled shrimp". There was only one type of fish. Traditionally it has three types of fish. The shrimps had no grill marks and still had their tails on. That doesn't make any sense in a soup. The mussels weren't any better than in the dish above. On the plus side, the fish was cooked perfectly as was the shrimps. The broth saved the dish, it was rich and really really tasty. The traditional rouille was absent. Did I say that the broth was delicious? Service was OK, the waiter was very pleasant but never inquired about how the food was.
Address 25 Rogers St, Gloucester, MA 01930
Phone number (978) 281-0223